IOI Mall hit by flash flood

A picture of the flash flood which hit the IOI Mall in Puchong on Wednesday. – pic courtesy of Litrak

PUCHONG: Flash floods, following heavy rains in the Klang Valley, hit the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) along the IOI Puchong stretch on Wednesday.

The Puchong-bound side of the highway was hit bad, with both middle and left lanes of the carriageway totally flooded and all the vehicles squeezing into the right lane to get by the IOI Boulevard area.

IOI Mall was not spared either, with the underground carpark flooded, and with outer shoplots affected as well, according to photos posted by netizens on Facebook and in WhatsApp groups.

The flash floods, which lasted about 20 minutes, resulted in a traffic jam along the LDP, spilling over into the adjoining Sprint highway, with some pathfinder apps such as Google Maps and Waze noting massive delays.

LDP concessionaire Lingkaran Trans-Kota (Litrak) said the heavy rain had caused the Klang River’s water level to rise.

This had resulted in the drainage system near IOI Mall to overflow.

“Immediate inspections on the upstream damage drainage system found several stretches of drain, namely at the IOI Mall and ongoing LRT construction site for Station 6 to be silted and in need of immediate desilting,” the concessionaire said in a press statement.

Litrak’s communications head Shah Rizal Mohamed Fawzi added that Emergency Response Teams had been deployed to monitor the affected areas and help out, while the incident was also broadcasted through the highway’s video messaging system at Kelana Jaya LRT station to alert road users.

Kinrara assemblyman Ng Sze Han said that the flash flood happened around 4.30pm and flooded the carpark area of IOI Mall Puchong.

“The waters receded quickly and the traffic jam lasted about an hour,” said Ng.

He added that the cause of the flash floods had yet to be determined.

“I have called for Prasarana and the Subang Jaya Municipal Council to investigate,” he added.

In early 2013, the mall was also affected by flash floods due to an underground drain malfunction.

The mall’s management could not be reached for comment.

Litrak’s engineers, together with representatives from the Subang Jaya Municipal Council and the Malaysian Highways Authority will conduct a site visit on Thursday to determine the causes of the flood.